Anyway I always wanted to try replacing the original HDD with a new one and experiment. So I decided to replace the original HDD with a SSD as an experiment.
There are pros and cons using a SSD in a NAS. It is obvious that the disk capacity is the major disadvantage. Anyway so far the best things I noticed are the low heat dissemination and low noise.
Here is my experience on replacing the disk in my linkstation.
I did some Google search on how to replace the original HDD and found out that it can be done in several ways.
One method is clone the first partition of the original HDD to the new HDD and then rebuild the partition structure using the LSUpdater.exe. You need a PC to run the LSUpdater.exe.
Another method is create all the partitions manually and clone only the first partition. You don't need LSUpdater.exe for this method.
I tried both the methods and only the latter worked for me.
There are a couple of ways to create partitions and prepare the first partition of the SSD.
One is plug both drives in to a PC or a Linux host and do the partitioning. Another method is use a USB HDD enclosure to connect the SSD to the linkstation via the USB port and do the partitioning and cloning using the linkstation itself. I have a USB HDD enclosure, so I used the latter.
This wiki entry has clear instructions on creating custom partitions. However it does not show you how to create the first partition.
http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Custom_Partitions_on_the_LS_Pro#HowTo_setup_the_internal_HDD
Let's start. Connect the SSD which is now in the USB HDD enclosure to the USB port of the linkstation. Log in to the linkstation.
The new disk will be appeared as /dev/sdb
root@LS-VL406:~# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
31 0 512 mtdblock0
8 0 976762584 sda
8 1 1000448 sda1
8 2 5000192 sda2
8 3 1024 sda3
8 4 1024 sda4
8 5 1000448 sda5
8 6 961750000 sda6
8 16 117220823 sdb
Let's start partitioning from the scratch. Detailed information of usage of these partitions are described in the wiki page mentioned above.
Be careful when you create the partitions. Specially if you use a Linux host, check the terminal which you use to enter fdisk commands. Sometimes the linkstation disconnects SSH connections so that you will be automatically put in to the host's terminal. If you didn't notice that you may end up with partitioning HDD of your host.
Device contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSF disklabel
Building a new DOS disklabel. Changes will remain in memory only,
until you decide to write them. After that the previous content
won't be recoverable.
The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 14593.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)
Warning: invalid flag 0x00,0x00 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 1
First cylinder (1-14593, default 1): <Press Enter>
Using default value 1
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1-14593, default 14593): +1024M
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
First cylinder (126-14593, default 126): <Press Enter>
Using default value 126
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (126-14593, default 14593): +3000M
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
e
Partition number (1-4): 4
First cylinder (492-14593, default 492): <Press Enter>
Using default value 492
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (492-14593, default 14593): <Press Enter>
Using default value 14593
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123264 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 125 1004031 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 126 491 2939895 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 492 14593 113274315 5 Extended
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-5): 4
Hex code (type L to list codes): L
0 Empty 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32 9f BSD/OS
1 FAT12 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) a0 Thinkpad hibernation
4 FAT16 <32M 1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
5 Extended 3c Part.Magic recovery a6 OpenBSD
6 FAT16 41 PPC PReP Boot a8 Darwin UFS
7 HPFS/NTFS 42 SFS a9 NetBSD
a OS/2 Boot Manager 63 GNU HURD or SysV ab Darwin boot
b Win95 FAT32 80 Old Minix b7 BSDI fs
c Win95 FAT32 (LBA) 81 Minix / old Linux b8 BSDI swap
e Win95 FAT16 (LBA) 82 Linux swap be Solaris boot
f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) 83 Linux eb BeOS fs
11 Hidden FAT12 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive ee EFI GPT
12 Compaq diagnostics 85 Linux extended ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
14 Hidden FAT16 <32M 86 NTFS volume set f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
16 Hidden FAT16 87 NTFS volume set f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS 8e Linux LVM fd Linux raid autodetect
Hex code (type L to list codes): f
Changed system type of partition 4 to f (Win95 Ext'd (LBA))
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123264 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 125 1004031 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 126 491 2939895 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 492 14593 113274315 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
Command (m for help): n
Command action
l logical (5 or over)
p primary partition (1-4)
l
First cylinder (492-14593, default 492): <Press Enter>
Using default value 492
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (492-14593, default 14593): +300M
Command (m for help): n
Command action
l logical (5 or over)
p primary partition (1-4)
l
First cylinder (529-14593, default 529): <Press Enter>
Using default value 529
Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (529-14593, default 14593): <Press Enter>
Using default value 14593
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123264 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 125 1004031 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 126 491 2939895 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 492 14593 113274315 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 492 528 297171 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 529 14593 112977081 83 Linux
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-6): 5
Hex code (type L to list codes): L
0 Empty 1b Hidden Win95 FAT32 9f BSD/OS
1 FAT12 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA) a0 Thinkpad hibernation
4 FAT16 <32M 1e Hidden W95 FAT16 (LBA) a5 FreeBSD
5 Extended 3c Part.Magic recovery a6 OpenBSD
6 FAT16 41 PPC PReP Boot a8 Darwin UFS
7 HPFS/NTFS 42 SFS a9 NetBSD
a OS/2 Boot Manager 63 GNU HURD or SysV ab Darwin boot
b Win95 FAT32 80 Old Minix b7 BSDI fs
c Win95 FAT32 (LBA) 81 Minix / old Linux b8 BSDI swap
e Win95 FAT16 (LBA) 82 Linux swap be Solaris boot
f Win95 Ext'd (LBA) 83 Linux eb BeOS fs
11 Hidden FAT12 84 OS/2 hidden C: drive ee EFI GPT
12 Compaq diagnostics 85 Linux extended ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
14 Hidden FAT16 <32M 86 NTFS volume set f0 Linux/PA-RISC boot
16 Hidden FAT16 87 NTFS volume set f2 DOS secondary
17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS 8e Linux LVM fd Linux raid autodetect
Hex code (type L to list codes): 82
Changed system type of partition 5 to 82 (Linux swap)
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sdb: 120.0 GB, 120034123264 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 125 1004031 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 126 491 2939895 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 492 14593 113274315 f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 492 528 297171 82 Linux swap
/dev/sdb6 529 14593 112977081 83 Linux
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table
root@LS-VL406:~#
After few seconds, the linkstation disconnect SSH sessions. Log in to the linkstation again and check the partition structure.
root@LS-VL406:~# partprobe /dev/sdb
root@LS-VL406:~# cat /proc/partitions
major minor #blocks name
31 0 512 mtdblock0
8 0 976762584 sda
8 1 1000448 sda1
8 2 5000192 sda2
8 3 1024 sda3
8 4 1024 sda4
8 5 1000448 sda5
8 6 961750000 sda6
8 16 117220823 sdb
8 17 1004031 sdb1
8 18 2939895 sdb2
8 20 1 sdb4
8 21 297171 sdb5
8 22 112977081 sdb6
Now create xfs file system on the data partition. (i.e. /dev/sdb6)
root@LS-VL406:~# mkfs.xfs /dev/sdb6
meta-data=/dev/sdb6 isize=256 agcount=4, agsize=7061068 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=28244270, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=13791, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
Then clone the /dev/sda1 to /dev/sdb1
root@LS-VL406:~# dd if=/dev/sda1 of=/dev/sdb1
2000896+0 records in
2000896+0 records out
root@LS-VL406:~# sync
root@LS-VL406:~#
Now switch off the linkstation and unplug the USB device. Remove the original HDD and plug the SSD to the linkstation directly. Then start your linkstation. Now it should be up and running with the SSD without any issue.
We are almost done. There is one thing we need to address. The linkstation needs it's "share" directory in the data partition and we haven't created it yet. We could have created it when we made the xfs file system. However the best way to create it is using the web interface so that it will be created with proper permissions.
So log into the linkstation using the web interface and remove the share directory shown in there and create it again with same permissions. That's it. You have the linkstation up and running with the SSD.
